No abstract

clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01689077.

The emergency medical healthcare system outside hospital varies greatly across the globe - even within the western world. Within the last ten years, the demand for emergency medical service systems has increased, and the Danish emergency medical service system has undergone major changes.Therefore, we aimed to provide an updated description of the current Danish prehospital medical healthcare system.Since 2007, Denmark has been divided into five regions each responsible for health services, including the prehospital services. Each region may contract their own ambulance service providers. The Danish emergency medical services in general include ambulances, rapid response vehicles, mobile emergency care units and helicopter emergency medical services. All calls to the national emergency number, 1-1-2, are answered by the police, or the Copenhagen fire brigade, and since 2011 forwarded to an Emergency Medical Coordination Centre when the call relates to medical issues. At the Emergency Medical Coordination Centre, healthcare personnel assess the situation guided by the Danish Index for Emergency Care and determine the level of urgency of the situation, while technical personnel dispatch the appropriate medical emergency vehicles. In Denmark, all healthcare services, including emergency medical services are publicly funded and free of charge. In addition to emergency calls, other medical services are available for less urgent health problems around the clock. Prehospital personnel have since 2015 utilized a nationwide electronic prehospital medical record. The use of this prehospital medical record combined with Denmark’s extensive registries, linkable by the unique civil registration number, enables new and unique possibilities to do high quality prehospital research, with complete patient follow-up.

No abstract

IMPORTANCE Previous trials have suggested that vasopressin and methylprednisolone administered during in-hospital cardiac arrest might improve outcomes.OBJECTIVE To determine whether the combination of vasopressin and methylprednisolone administered during in-hospital cardiac arrest improves return of spontaneous circulation. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted at 10 hospitals in Denmark. A total of 512 adult patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest were included between October 15, 2018, and January 21, 2021. The last 90-day follow-up was on April 21, 2021.INTERVENTION Patients were randomized to receive a combination of vasopressin and methylprednisolone (n = 245) or placebo (n = 267). The first dose of vasopressin (20 IU) and methylprednisolone (40 mg), or corresponding placebo, was administered after the first dose of epinephrine. Additional doses of vasopressin or corresponding placebo were administered after each additional dose of epinephrine for a maximum of 4 doses. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESThe primary outcome was return of spontaneous circulation. Secondary outcomes included survival and favorable neurologic outcome at 30 days (Cerebral Performance Category score of 1 or 2). RESULTS Among 512 patients who were randomized, 501 met all inclusion and no exclusion criteria and were included in the analysis (mean [SD] age, 71 [13] years; 322 men [64%]). One hundred of 237 patients (42%) in the vasopressin and methylprednisolone group and 86 of 264 patients (33%) in the placebo group achieved return of spontaneous circulation (risk ratio, 1.30 [95% CI, 1.03-1.63]; risk difference, 9.6% [95% CI, 1.1%-18.0%]; P = .03). At 30 days, 23 patients (9.7%) in the intervention group and 31 patients (12%) in the placebo group were alive (risk ratio, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.50-1.37]; risk difference: −2.0% [95% CI, −7.5% to 3.5%]; P = .48). A favorable neurologic outcome was observed in 18 patients (7.6%) in the intervention group and 20 patients (7.6%) in the placebo group at 30 days (risk ratio, 1.00 [95% CI, 0.55-1.83]; risk difference, 0.0% [95% CI, −4.7% to 4.9%]; P > .99). In patients with return of spontaneous circulation, hyperglycemia occurred in 77 (77%) in the intervention group and 63 (73%) in the placebo group. Hypernatremia occurred in 28 (28%) and 27 (31%), in the intervention and placebo groups, respectively.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Among patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest, administration of vasopressin and methylprednisolone, compared with placebo, significantly increased the likelihood of return of spontaneous circulation. However, there is uncertainty whether this treatment results in benefit or harm for long-term survival.

IntroductionWe report data from the first Utstein-style study of physician-provided pre-hospital advanced airway management.Materials and methodsAnaesthesiologists from eight pre-hospital critical care teams in the Central Denmark Region (a mixed rural and urban region with 1.27 million inhabitants) prospectively registered data according to the template for reporting data from pre-hospital advanced airway management. Data collection took place from February 1st 2011 to October 31st 2012. Included were patients of all ages on whom pre-hospital advanced airway management was performed. The objective was to estimate the incidences of failed and difficult pre-hospital endotracheal intubation, and complications related to pre-hospital advanced airway management.ResultsThe overall incidence of successful pre-hospital endotracheal intubation among 636 intubation attempts was 99.7%, even though 22.4% of pre-hospital endotracheal intubations required more than one intubation attempt. The overall incidence of complications related to pre-hospital advanced airway management was 7.9%. Following rapid sequence intubation, the incidence of first pass success was 85.8%, the overall incidence of complications was 22.0%, the incidence of hypotension 7.3% and that of hypoxia 5.3%. Multiple endotracheal intubation attempts were associated with an increased overall incidence of complications. No airway management related deaths occurred.DiscussionThe overall incidence of successful pre-hospital endotracheal intubations compares to those found in other physician-staffed pre-hospital systems. The incidence of pre-hospital endotracheal intubations requiring more than one attempt is higher than suspected. The incidence of hypotension or hypoxia after pre-hospital rapid sequence intubation compares to those found in UK emergency departments.ConclusionPre-hospital advanced airway management including pre-hospital endotracheal intubation performed by experienced anaesthesiologists is associated with high success rates and relatively low incidences of complications. An increased first pass success rate following pre-hospital endotracheal intubation may further reduce the incidence of complications and enhance patient safety in our system.

IMPORTANCE Neuroprognostication studies are potentially susceptible to a self-fulfilling prophecy as investigated prognostic parameters may affect withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy.OBJECTIVE To compare the results of prognostic parameters after cardiac arrest (CA) with the histopathologically determined severity of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) obtained from autopsy results. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSIn a retrospective, 3-center cohort study of all patients who died following cardiac arrest during their intensive care unit stay and underwent autopsy between 2003 and 2015, postmortem brain histopathologic findings were compared with post-CA brain computed tomographic imaging, electroencephalographic (EEG) findings, somatosensory-evoked potentials, and serum neuron-specific enolase levels obtained during the intensive care unit stay. Data analysis was conducted from 2015 to 2020. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESThe severity of HIE was evaluated according to the selective eosinophilic neuronal death (SEND) classification and patients were dichotomized into categories of histopathologically severe and no/mild HIE. RESULTSOf 187 included patients, 117 were men (63%) and median age was 65 (interquartile range, 58-74) years. Severe HIE was found in 114 patients (61%) and no/mild HIE was identified in 73 patients (39%). Severe HIE was found in all 21 patients with bilaterally absent somatosensory-evoked potentials, all 15 patients with gray-white matter ratio less than 1.10 on brain computed tomographic imaging, all 9 patients with suppressed EEG, 15 of 16 patients with burst-suppression EEG, and all 29 patients with neuron-specific enolase levels greater than 67 μg/L more than 48 hours after CA without confounders. Three of 7 patients with generalized periodic discharges on suppressed background and 1 patient with burst-suppression EEG had a SEND 1 score (<30% dead neurons) in the cerebral cortex, but higher SEND scores (>30% dead neurons) in other oxygen-sensitive brain regions. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEIn this study, histopathologic findings suggested severe HIE after cardiac arrest in patients with bilaterally absent cortical somatosensory-evoked potentials, gray-white matter ratio less than 1.10, highly malignant EEG, and serum neuron-specific enolase concentration greater than 67 μg/L.

No abstract